The World Bank's Commitment to HIV/AIDS in Africa
Our Agenda for Action, 2007-2011
Wednesday, May 14, 2008, 3:00 - 5:00 pm, Washington, DC

Speaker Biographies (in alphabetical order)

Gerard Byam
Director, Operational Quality and Knowledge, Africa Region, World Bank

Gerard Byam is the Director for the Africa Region’s Operational Quality and Knowledge Services (AFTQK) of the World Bank. AFTQK provides advice on the design of operations, and on the arrangements for supporting the implementation of all operations in the region. The department monitors and reports on the quality of the region’s portfolio, and provides core services to the Region’s operations in Procurement, Financial Management, Capacity Development, and Monitoring and Evaluation. The department includes a unit dedicated to the provision of core services in support of the region’s HIV/AIDS operations. AFTQK also manages the region’s program of Staff Learning.

Mr. Byam, a Trinidad/Tobago national, joined the Bank in 1988 and has worked in several major areas including community driven development, privatization, banking sector reform and pensions. Immediately before assuming his current position in 2004, he was the Africa Region’s Sector Manager for Financial Sector Development.

Prior to joining the World Bank, Mr. Byam worked for the Caribbean Development Bank in Barbados, on a multi-donor technical assistance program for the eastern Caribbean in Antigua, and as an Economist for the Power Authority of the State of New York in New York City. He has degrees from Queen’s University in Kingston, Ontario and the University of British Columbia.

Shantayanan Devarajan
Chief Economist, Africa Region, World Bank

Shantayanan Devarajan is the Chief Economist of the World Bank’s Africa Region. Since joining the World Bank in 1991, he has been a Principal Economist and Research Manager for Public Economics in the Development Research Group, as well as the Chief Economist of the Human Development Network. More recently, he was Chief Economist of the South Asia Region. He was the Director of the World Development Report 2004, Making Services Work for Poor People. Before 1991, he was on the faculty of Harvard University’s John F. Kennedy School of Government. The author or co-author of over 100 publications, Mr. Devarajan’s research covers public economics, trade policy, natural resources and the environment, and general-equilibrium modeling of developing countries.

Born in Sri Lanka, Mr. Devarajan received his A.B. in mathematics from Princeton University and his Ph.D. in economics from the University of California at Berkeley.

John Hassell
Director, Washington Office, UNAIDS

John Hassell is the Washington Director for the United Nations Joint Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS). John is responsible for leading UNAIDS efforts within the U.S. policy environment including the engagement of and provision of support to key stakeholders in the U.S. government, the private sector, the advocacy community and the media.

John came to UNAIDS on December 18, 2006 from Hewlett-Packard Company where he ran its Washington, D.C. office as director of federal government affairs. He managed a team of lobbyists and public policy experts in shaping U.S.-based international, federal and state public policy that directly affected the interests of HP. He previously served as director of public affairs for HP in its corporate headquarters in Palo Alto, Calif. Hassell joined HP as its director of state and local government affairs after serving as the northern regional public affairs manager for Simpson Investment Company. He was previously employed as California public affairs manager for FMC Corporation’s Defense Systems Group and governmental affairs representative for Caterpillar Inc.

John has served on the Northwest AIDS Foundation board of directors in Seattle; the Pierce County Washington Community AIDS Partnership; the Santa Clara County, California AIDS Commission and the University of California at San Francisco AIDS Research Institute’s leadership council. A native of Newport News, Va., he is a graduate of the College of William and Mary and is a member of the Metropolitan Community Church of Washington, D.C.

Elizabeth Lule
Manager, AIDS Campaign Team for Africa, World Bank

Elizabeth Lule, a Ugandan national, is currently the Manager of AIDS Campaign Team for Africa (ACTafrica), responsible for the overall policy direction and coordination of the World Bank’s HIV/AIDS work in Africa. She leads the ACTAfrica team’s efforts to facilitate the implementation of Multi-Country HIV/AIDS Program (MAP) for Africa that committed over US $ 1.6 billion in 30 countries. Prior to this, she was the World Bank’s Adviser for Population and Reproductive, Maternal and Child Health in the Human Development Vice Presidency.

Prior to joining the World Bank, she was Africa Regional Vice President for Pathfinder International. She worked with USAID in Nigeria as program manager and technical advisor of its health nutrition and population program. She taught Statistics and Demography at the University of Swaziland and Cote d’Ivoire. She has published widely on various issues of women’s health, youth, and HIV/AIDS and is a frequent speaker in international and academic fora. She has advanced degrees from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine and London School of Economics.  

Yolonda C. Richardson
President & CEO, The Centre for Development and Population Activities (CEDPA)

Yolonda C. Richardson is a dynamic leader and recognized expert on gender and international development issues. As the President and CEO of CEDPA, Richardson provides overall direction for the organization and its programs throughout the world. Her leadership ensures the success of CEDPA’s efforts in girls’ education and youth development, reproductive health and HIV/AIDS, and gender and governance. A global organization founded in 1975, CEDPA has offices in Egypt, India, Nepal, Nigeria, Senegal, South Africa and the United States, and more than 5,000 alumni and partners in over 150 countries.

She served as Special Counsel for the African Development Foundation. From 1999 to 2002, she served as Senior Vice President of Africare, where she oversaw more than 150 development projects throughout Africa. Prior to joining Africare, Richardson spent ten years at the Carnegie Corporation of New York, where she managed an international grant program focused on women’s health and development.

Once a corporate attorney at the Wall Street law firm, Cahill Gordon & Reindel, she remains a member of the American Bar Association and the National Bar Association. She is also a member of the Association of Black Foundation Executives, Women in Philanthropy, the Council on Foreign Relations and the Women’s Foreign Policy Group. She serves on the board of directors of InterAction and the Society for International Development.

Originally from Shreveport, Louisiana, Richardson holds a Masters Degree in Public Health from Columbia University and a Juris Doctorate from Yale University School of Law. She received a Bachelor of Arts degree, summa cum laude, from Dillard University in New Orleans.

Antony Thompson
Operations Advisor and Acting Director, Global HIV-AIDS Program, World Bank

Tony Thompson, a native of Belfast, N. Ireland, recently joined the Global HIV/AIDS Program from the Africa Region where he worked in Financial Sector Development across the Region for the past 9 years, previously as a technical specialist and more recently as Sector Manager. Over the past year he has successfully launched the Global Partnership for “Making Finance Work for Africa”. He joined the World Bank in 1992 and, after initial rotations with the East African Human Development Unit and the Middle East and North Africa Country Operations Unit, went to the World Bank's Tanzania office where he worked as Operations Officer from 1994 until 1998. Before joining the World Bank, Tony worked for 4 1/2 years as a Hospital Administrator from 1985 to 1989 at Kilimatinde District Designated Hospital in rural Tanzania. The hospital was a part of the Anglican Diocese of Central Tanganyika and was run as a joint venture with the Government of Tanzania providing health services to Manyoni District. Tony holds an MBA from the University of Chicago.